Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil on Friday attacked BJP over the jewellers’ strike, recalling in the Assembly that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had supported jewellers in 2012 who were then protesting against excise duty levied on them. However, now the same protesters, who have been on strike for a month across the country, are being ignored by the Centre, he said.
The comment did not go down well with BJP legislators who reached the well of the House and tried to disrupt proceedings and demanded to remove the Prime Minister’s name from the records.
The jewellers’ strike against imposition of the excise levy proposed in the budget this year entered its 32st day on Friday. The shops are shut across the country and a demonstration was also carried out at Azad Maidan on Friday.
Drawing attention to the issue, Shiv Sena MLA Sunil Prabhu said that there were 45 lakh employees and 30 lakh jewellers in the country. “The state government should make a request to the Centre to reduce the duty,” he said. A delegation of the jewellers had met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray requesting him to intervene in the matter.
Supporting the demand, Mr Patil said Mr Modi, when he was not the PM, had supported the jewellers in the cause. “The jewellers are saying Kamal Ka Phul, Ek Hi Bhul (flower of ‘lotus’ was a mistake). The state should intervene,” he said.
However, BJP MLAs Ashish Shelar, Raj Purohit, Medha Kulkarni got into the well before the Speaker and shouted slogans against Mr Patil. Even education minister Vinod Tawde said that Mr Patil could not speak like this. Environment minister Ramdas Kadam demanded the Speaker to expunge the PM’s name from the records.
But Mr Patil remained firm and continued with the argument. “It is against my freedom of speech. I can take name of the Prime Minister,” he said. Finally, Speaker Haribhau Bagde intervened and instructed the government to speak with the jewellers.
